Maecenas

Definitions

A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art.

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious Lord and Master, his Maecenas.”

“[O]ur young gentleman was shewn into another room, where half a dozen of his fellow-adherents waited for their Mæcenas, who in a few minutes appeared, with a most gracious aspect, received the compliments of the morning, and sat down to breakfast, in the midst of them, without any further ceremony.”

“The government […] maintained one of the largest armies in Europe; it developed what became, by the 1780s, a navy as big as the British; and it played the role of cultural Maecenas.”

“The contemporary art space created within the Palais de Tokyo (also home to the Paris Museum of Modern Art) is a pretty sad example of government as Maecenas.”

CEFR level